Seddigheh Zeynali Dastuyi - Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran
Abbas Ali Ahangar - Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran
Pakzad Yusefiyan - Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran
Stephen Levinsohn - Senior Linguistic Consultant, SIL International, University of Reading, United Kingdom

Giving certain elements more significance than others in the same context is called prominence. This study aims at identifying and comparing markers of focal and thematic prominence in Persian general       practitioners’ books (GPBs) and Persian online medical journals (OMJs) based on Levinsohn’s model. The data were gathered from ۱۰۰ texts from two written Persian GPBs and ۱۰۰ texts from two Persian OMJs. SPSS software version ۲۴ was used to evaluate the data. Results demonstrated “emphatic   markers” such as fæqæt ‘just’ were used for focal prominence much more frequently in OMJs than in GPBs. In addition, significant differences were observed between GPBs and OMJs with regard to the markers of focal prominence and prominence in general, but not with regard to markers of thematic prominence. This may be related to the twofold effect of the different discourse types and different addressees of these texts.

focal prominence, thematic prominence, medical discourse, medical journal, general practitioners’ books